One of the small plants underneath our feet in the Georgia Piedmont is henbit, Lamium amplexicaule.
It was common in Texas, and I shouldn’t have been surprised to find it in Stone Mountain. It was in Asia, African and Europe before it came to the Western Hemisphere.
The other day I made of note of seeing Beale’s barberry in the woods. It’s on lists of “invasive species,” a concept that bothers me. It makes me wonder when henbit became naturalized here. Did it come with the Spanish explorers? Or when the English colonists arrived? Was it here long before then?
A couple of years ago, I was walking the enormous dog when cottonwood seeds rained down on us. I brushed more than a dozen out of his coat before he jumped in the truck.
Does it matter if the invasive species is brought into a new place with intention? I’m not sure earlier Europeans had any more idea what they were doing when they brought seeds with them than my dog does when he carries home botanical specimens from our journeys.
I guess what bothers me about the idea is the suggestion that man is somehow separate from nature.
Humans and carry plants from place to place. I’m not sure one species knows that much more about the consequences of its actions than the other.
• For more on henbit, see “More common plants in the public spaces,” Jan. 19, 2022.
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